“Yeah, like in the movies when there’s a twist and it turns out the person you thought was the good guy is actually the villain.” My heart feels tight in my chest. I don’t want to make things so heavy between us, but I feel like I need to tell him the truth about how I’m feeling about the world.
“I wasn’t always like this,” I say.
“Like what?”
Julio comes by with the burgers right then, which is good, because it gives me some time to figure out what I’m trying to say.
X bites into his burger and then makes a happy, that’s so delicious sound. We eat for a little while before he prompts me again: “You weren’t always like what?”
I lean forward. “I don’t know if I believe in this stuff anymore.”
“What stuff?” he asks, chewing slowly.
I wave my hand between us. “Dating.”
He puts down his burger and his eyes are steady on me as he waits for me to go on. “Remember at the bonfire you asked me if Sophie and Cassidy ever dated?” I ask.
“Yeah, why?” I see the moment he figures it out. “They hook up or something?”
I nod.
His eyes roam over my face. “How come you’re sad about it?”
I don’t want to tell him about our fight and how I haven’t seen them all week. “I don’t think they’re right together, and when they break up it’s going to ruin our friendship.”
“Who says they’re gonna break up?”
How do I explain this to him without telling him about the visions?
“Nothing lasts,” I say. “My parents used to be so happy. If you’d met the Evie from a year and a half ago and told her that her dad would cheat on her mom and they’d get divorced and her dad would be getting remarried, she would’ve made merciless fun of you.”
“Well, I don’t know what the old Evie was like, but I like the new one a lot,” he says. “It’s okay you’re feeling cynical these days. It’s okay if you don’t trust the world so much right now. You have good reasons.”
And just like that, I like him even more than I already did. He’s so surprising, this boy, swagger and insight and gentleness all mixed up together.
We finish our burgers and head back to our pool table. “Ready to lose?” he asks, picking up his cue.
I don’t even bother to narrow my eyes at him. As soon as he’s done racking, I break, sinking two solids. After that, I proceed to run the table like it’s my job. Only the eight ball is left. I turn and give him the cockiest grin I know how to.
“I deserve that,” he says as he busts out laughing.
“Maybe I’ll sink it with my eyes closed,” I say.
“No way,” he says. “No way you’re gonna take that kind of chance.”
But it’s an easy shot for me. I’m not taking much of a chance at all. I sink it with my eyes closed. When I open my eyes again, he’s right there next to me.
He takes my cue from me and lays it on the table. “Nice game,” he says, pulling me into his arms for a hug.
I wrap my arms around his waist and press my face against his chest.
We stay that way for a little while, until he says, “We can go slow if you want.” He pulls back a little to look down at my face. “I mean, assuming you want to do this again. With me.”
It’s sweet how nervous he is. I smile up at him. “Okay, let’s go slow.”
“Does this mean we can officially call this a date?” he asks.
I laugh and put my head back on his chest. “It’s definitely a date,” I say.
CHAPTER 32
Let’s Taco ’Bout It
MOM HAS HER very first app date tonight. His name is Bob. He’s a pediatrician. An oncological pediatrician. When I asked her why she thought a handsome doctor had never been married at age forty-seven, she looked at me and said, “He saves the lives of children, Evie. Children with cancer.”
I’m not supersure what one thing has to do with the other, but I let it go.
“Trust me, you look beautiful,” Danica says to Mom as they come downstairs.
How Danica talked Mom into shimmery gold eyeshadow and red lipstick, I don’t know. But she’s right. Mom looks gorgeous. She’s wearing a dark-blue midlength dress that flares at the hips with her favorite pair of practical-but-still-sexy heels. The last time I saw her wear those shoes was out to dinner with Dad.
She checks her face in the vestibule mirror and turns to Danica. “You sure about this lipstick? You don’t think it’s too—”